Established in 1971, the Political Science Reviewer has served for more than a half century as a venue for political theory and philosophy that resists disciplinary dogmas and novelties. We endeavor to give voice to a range of scholars and to put these voices into traditional conversation with each other. Authors are encouraged to submit both articles and symposium ideas.
School of Economic Thought and Leadership
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Wilson Carey McWilliam's The Idea of Fraternity in America at 50
A symposium on Wilson Carey McWilliam's The Idea of Fraternity in America
The Concept of Tradition and the Catholic University
This paper considers Alasdair MacIntyre’s explication of three rival versions of moral enquiry—encyclopedia, genealogy, and tradition—as a framework for thinking about the modern Catholic university. In applying MacIntyre’s analysis to the contemporary situation, the paper argues that “tradition hires” rather than “mission hires” are required to maintain the identity of an authentically Catholic university. At the same time, the paper contends that those faculty who practice moral enquiry in the mode of encyclopedia or genealogy nonetheless contribute to a thriving university. Finally, the paper draws on the theologian, Yves Congar, to argue that a plurality of traditions exist within the Catholic intellectual tradition.
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Augustine and Political Friendship as Metaxy
This article examines Augustine’s concept of political friendship as a counterpoint to liberalism’s reliance on self-interest to achieve political harmony, a premise increasingly doubted for failing to foster civic virtue. Using Eric Voegelin’s notion of metaxy—the “in-between” realm of human existence—it portrays Augustine’s commonwealth as a space where the city of God (love of God) and the earthly city (love of self) converge. Augustine defines a people as rational beings bound by common objects of love, contrasting with liberalism’s distorted Augustinian roots, evident in thinkers like Pascal and Locke. Political friendship, infused with Ciceronian ideas and eschatological depth, balances justice and power through prudent choices. This metaxic commonwealth, both divine and deficient, offers a unique ontological status. Amid liberalism’s crisis, Augustine’s vision—prioritizing justice over power and likening community to a joyful, improvisational "jubilus"—presents a compelling alternative for nurturing political friendship in contemporary society.
Rival Revivals of Aquinas’s Tyrannicide Doctrine: Mariana and Suárez
The early-modern resistance theories developed by Juan de Mariana, S.J. (1536-1624) and Francisco Suárez, S.J. (1548-1617), are less novel, and more consistent with Thomas Aquinas’s framework for tyrannicide in the De regno (c. 1267) than leading intellectual historians allow. This article makes the case that Mariana and Suárez clarify, refine, and develop Aquinas’s highly permissive and substantially vague writings on tyrannicide in rival ways. It demonstrates how medieval and ultimately Roman considerations of tyranny and tyrannicide remain present to the seventeenth-century thinkers who define so many modern ideas about rights of revolution, sovereignty, and the relationship between Church and state.
Xenophon's Political Realism: The Opening of the Cyropaedia
Readers of The Education of Cyrus have long pondered its basic message. In this essay, I argue for the centrality of the first chapter of the work to our understanding of the work as a whole. There, Xenophon indicates that he was led to the study of Cyrus by idealistic hopes engendered by the awe he felt at Cyrus’s accomplishments. Once he had come to understand certain key aspects of Cyrus’s rule, Xenophon ceased to be gripped by those hopes. In this way, the introductory chapter of the Cyropaedia anticipates and encapsulates key teachings of the work as a whole, both about the true character of Cyrus’s excellence at ruling and about Xenophon’s interest in Cyrus. The chapter provides substantial evidence for a realist reading of the Cyropaedia as a corrective to idealistic hopes, particularly the hope that knowledge, if joined with political power, could solve all the problems of political life.
Using René Girard’s mimetic theory, this article breaks new and important ground in the scholarly treatment of Robert Penn Warren’s award-winning All the King’s Men. The novel depicts a society in the midst of a major political and social crisis. Anger, envy, resentment, and corruption are widespread. For Girard, such a crisis almost always culminates in an act of spectacular community violence—a scapegoating event—that brings peace and renews order. This is exactly how the novel concludes. By intuiting (if not consciously understanding) the relationship between mimetic conflict and violence, the novel illustrates what Girard sees as the “satanic” foundation of political and social order as such. This article not only sheds new light on the novel. It also demonstrates the value of Girard’s mimetic theory for research in the areas of American literature and political theory.
René Girard, mimetic theory, scapegoat, Satan, Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men
This article explores the (qualified) Peronism of the Argentinian pope, his tendency to redefine Catholic thought in a broadly humanitarian and progressivist direction, and his questionable advocacy of enhanced Christian-Communist collaboration. By confusing compassion with charity, pacifism with peace, and the universality of the Christian religion with the effacement of national distinctions, Francis has weakened the Catholic Church's long-time refusal to identify freedom, justice, and peace with “ideological dreaming.” Special attention is paid to the pope's largely "humanitarian" reading of the Parable of the Good Samaritan in his 2020 encyclical Fratelli tutti.
Stephanie Shonekan and Adam Seagrave's Race and the American Story
Notes on Contributors Political Science Reviewer 48(1) 2024
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Relativism and Revelation in Plato's Cratylus
This study, focusing on the figure of Hermogenes in Plato’s Cratylus and Socrates’s allusions to Euthyphro and to divine inspiration, argues that the dialogue discloses a strange kinship between “perspectivism” or “relativism,” on one hand, and “revelation” or “decisionism,” on the other. It finds that Socrates concedes surprisingly significant ground to those positions. And, finally, it gives a view of Socrates’s dialectical response in light of that ground he is forced to concede.
Atlantic Revolutions, Constitutionalism, and Liberalism During the Spanish-American Independence Movements
This article is a historiographic analysis and critique of the central aspects of the study of the Spanish-American independence movements, specifically, its framing within the Atlantic Revolutions, the constitutional explosion during the second decade of the 19th century, and the role that liberalism played, not only in the Spanish-American context, but also the Spanish liberal revolution (1810-1814) and the Cádiz Constitution of 1812. The main thesis of the article is that the revoluciones hispánicas that took place in the Spanish-speaking world between 1808 and 1824 were clearly different from other revolutionary movements and made an original contribution to the Age of Revolutions, all of which tends to be minimized when considered as the last of the “great” Atlantic Revolutions (that of the Thirteen Colonies, the French Revolution, and the Haitian Revolution).
All about the authors in this issue.
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Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America remains the authoritative study of American society through French eyes. But Tocqueville was not the only Frenchman to record his observations of America in the nineteenth century. This article explores the forgotten essays and notes of Ernest Duvergier de Hauranne, who traveled throughout the United States at the height of the Civil War in 1864. Duvergier de Hauranne deepened Tocqueville’s insights about the aristocratic-democratic binary, but he also amended Tocqueville’s framework to explain the conditions of America at war. This article argues that Duvergier de Hauranne’s observations about the party system in particular were meant to educate Second Empire France, since parties could promote plurality without sacrificing the sense of national unity that the French aimed to preserve. His insights remind us why many Frenchmen in the volatile nineteenth century were drawn to America in the first place: to understand the characteristics of a faraway republic in order to respond to the unique circumstances of their home country.
Ortega y Gasset’s The Revolt of the Masses and the Future of Liberty
José Ortega y Gasset’s seminal 1930 book, The Revolt of the Masses, has a misleading title. The word ‘revolt’ in the title gives the unsuspecting reader the impression that the book is a work of political science. Readers who approach this now classic work in that vein are quickly disappointed, some even confused. The Revolt of the Masses is a work of philosophical anthropology that explores the nature of free will, authenticity, self-reflection and liberty in relation to man’s understanding of society, the world and objective reality. Ortega y Gasset addresses these philosophical themes through metaphysical/existential reflection in the life of mass and noble man respectively, and what these two modes of being signify for human freedom in modernity and future eras. One of the achievements of The Revolt of the Masses is Ortega’s exploration of the effect that metaphysical/existential turning away from authenticity and free will has on modern life, and the threat that existential negation and ennui are to the future of liberty. “Ortega y Gasset’s The Revolt of the Masses and the Future of Liberty” makes the case that Ortega’s thought, regarding mass man and liberty, should be given ample space to make the case for himself, through a careful reading and generous citations.
Tyranny in the Americas: Sarmiento’s Tocquevillian Science and the Argentine Civil Wars
This paper investigates Domingo Faustino Sarmiento’s application of Alexis de Tocqueville’s “new science of politics” to analyze the consequences of the great democratic revolution in Argentina. Unlike Tocqueville’s America, Sarmiento believes that Argentina’s inner convulsions reveal a “new way of being that has no well-marked or known precedent.” What is this new way of being? Which political phenomenon does Sarmiento’s account of the Argentinian civil war reveal to modern science? If Tocqueville found in the United States a “social state” that permitted the delicate balance between democracy and freedom, in Argentina, Sarmiento unveils a new lesson for science, a new modern form of tyranny. Thus, Sarmiento’s Facundo presents two distinct forms of tyranny: the cruel primitive personalism of Facundo Quiroga, representing ancient tyranny, and the cold bureaucratic impersonalism of Juan Manuel de Rosas, who creates modern tyranny based on a total state and total terror.
There has been increasing worldwide attention to Ernesto Laclau’s work, but his views on political theology remain understudied. Since Laclau is often read in connection with Schmitt and given that he acknowledges the influence of Derrida, we compare their thoughts on this subject to show formal similarities, common analogies, and contrasting political implications. Like Schmitt, Laclau invokes secularized theological concepts to address the political and, as does Derrida, invokes mystic logic to deconstruct traditional thought. However, unlike Schmitt, Laclau denies a metaphysical foundation for the political and the possibility of a stable order. Also, unlike Derrida’s detachment from more practical or concrete considerations, Laclau offers an explicit defense of political hegemony. Despite some conceptual tensions in Laclau’s reading of the apophatic tradition, his analogical exercise shows how political theology remains a fruitful field of interest for political theorists.
Political Theology, Ernesto Laclau, Political Philosophy, Populism
This article compares the nineteenth-century Mexican statesman and political thinker Lucas Alamán to his close contemporary Alexis de Tocqueville starting from their parallel verdicts on the United States Constitution of 1789 and the Mexican Constitution of 1824: that federalism would successfully combine authority and liberty in the U.S. but not in Mexico. It identifies commonalities between their methodologies and sources, their constitutional analyses, and their understandings of the relationship between history and political action. The article demonstrates not just that Alamán was engaged in and contributing to the latest debates in Western political thought, but also that Alamán’s adherence to the mixed regime tradition and stress on the need for state capacity to provide order addresses a lacuna in Tocquevillian thinking.
Suppressing the Wicked and Ensuring Order
Thinkers and statesmen in newly independent, postcolonial Latin America reflected on what it could mean to be authentically Latin American without being dependent on Spain. This was a major theme in many of the most significant political theoretical writings of the nineteenth century in Latin America. This article turns to the age of a newly independent Mexico in the 1820s and 1830s to explore how the philosopher and statesman Lucas Alamán wrestled with questions of how Mexico might extricate itself from the shadow of Spain and its putatively defective institutions without simply repeating their failure and servilely replicating the practices of the United States. This went hand-in-hand with larger questions regarding the shape of the Mexican nation—and indeed whether there was one in the first place. Yet Alamán does not embrace a manifestly critical disposition toward Spain and Europe as a whole. He instead positions himself as a careful and moderate reformer, skeptical of both the failures of the past and the idealistic promises for the future. He was, in short, a sort of postcolonial Mexican Edmund Burke—the latter having been an important influence on Alamán. Ultimately, Alamán understood his task as being the historical construction of Mexico—one that relied neither on indigenous history, which had been fundamentally erased, nor on Spanish political institutions, which he believed ought to be jettisoned. That is, he sought to establish an authentically Mexican politics.
This article discusses the use of literature by four leading Latin American intellectuals— Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (1811–1888), Esteban Echeverría (1805–1851), Rubén Darío (1867–1916), and José Enrique Rodó (1871–1917)—and its connection with their political thought on the question of national identity. Apart from their role in the nation-building efforts of elites during this period, these figures, through their literary writings, helped to establish a common “American” intellectual tradition and national identity during a postrevolutionary period that was still struggling with civil wars, social unrest, and commercial and governmental development amid newfound political independence. Literature thus played an active role in shaping the character of Latin American political thought in the nineteenth century by conveying the visions for national and broader “American” identities. Sarmiento and Echeverría, both figures in the Romantic movement, conceived of an American identity in nature; Darío and Rodó, figures in the modernismo movement, conceived of an American identity in spirit.
Plurinational States and Legal Pluralism: An Impossible Mission?
Almost fifteen years ago, Bolivia and Ecuador endorsed the most radical constitutions globally regarding indigenous issues. Both nations established plurinationality as the guiding principle for interactions between the state and indigenous peoples. In theory, plurinationality aims to replace the modern and liberal state with a decolonized and post-liberal indigenous state. However, in practice, Bolivia and Ecuador have significantly restricted the self-government of indigenous peoples, contradicting and nuancing the original meaning of plurinationality, even within the same constitutional provisions that ostensibly promote it. One institutional arrangement reflecting the numerous limitations to the autonomy of indigenous peoples is legal pluralism and the severe constraints indigenous justice systems face. All these contradictions cast severe doubts on the plurinational character of Bolivia and Ecuador, the only plurinational states at the constitutional level worldwide. Throughout this essay, I explore some features and effects of this paradox. Firstly, I delve into the concept of plurinationality and examine how the constitutional courts have shaped plurinational political projects in both countries. Then, I analyze the limitations of legal pluralism in Bolivia and Ecuador. In the final section, I discuss the implications of the contradictions in plurinational political practice and its diffusion in Latin America.
Plurinationality, Bolivia, Ecuador, Legal Pluralism
The Unfaithful Translation of Bentham for Gran Colombia and the Hispanic World
This paper argues that the supporters of Jeremy Bentham’s utilitarian principles in the Gran Colombia skillfully propagated his views through targeted adaptive methods within a religious and political conservative stronghold. Although Bentham believed in the universality of his rational and utilitarian principles, their global dissemination required the practical act of translation, an act which often failed to achieve a genuine fidelity to the original. Hispanic audiences were introduced to Bentham’s writings through the translation of Ramón Salas, a thinker, who admittedly altered, edited, and revised his subject’s work. Salas stretched, corrected, and altered Bentham’s own statements to appeal to Hispanic audiences steeped in Catholic teachings and Scholasticism in two fundamental ways. First, he determined narrow moments of convergence with natural law approaches and utilitarian principles. He also reinterpreted religious dictums and doctrines to coincide with Bentham’s aims. Salas proved instrumental in integrating Bentham into a seemingly incompatible tradition. His rhetorical tactics were emulated abroad by Colombian defenders of utilitarianism who faced vitriol from religious and conservative voices in their country.
Bentham, utilitarianism, Colombia, Latin American Political thought
Nostalgia for Empire?: Ortega y Gasset’s Use of Memory during Spain’s Crisis of Identity
This article identifies a consistent thread in Ortega y Gasset’s early political thought from 1914-1921. This thread lies in his treatment of Spain’s identity crisis after their defeat against the United States in the Disaster of 1898. Two of his early books, Meditaciones del Quijote and España Invertebrada, are identified as works that reveal the historical causes and effects of Spain’s identity crisis. Both works meditate upon the significance of Spain’s imperial past as a solution to their identity crisis yet reach different conclusions about what their imperial past means for their present situation. It is argued that the tying thread within his approaches to address Spain’s identity crisis is in his appeal to a particular historical method based on his metaphysical assertion that "I am myself plus my circumstances."
Author Meets Critics: Jeffrey Church's Kant, Liberalism, and the Meaning of Life
Jeffrey Church, author of Kant, Liberalism, and the Meaning of Life, replies to commentary from Elisabeth Ellis, Nicholas Tampio, Robert Taylor, Peter Steinberger, and Michael Kryluk.